INK SLINGS. ——Senator Couzens, of Michigan, . -seems to be enjoying that justly cel- ! ebrated “last laugh” in full measure. | —— Probably it was the malign in- | fluence of witchcraft that gave the Re- | publican ticket a big majority in York county, last month. ——After a careful examination of “the subject Governor-elect Roosevelt, of New York, finds the Democratic party very much alive. | —Mr. Hoover's good-will visit to “South America has already made Bo- livia and Paraguay feel so darned good that they have declared war. ——Congress will be very busy -during the short session but there is danger that eagerness will defeat many of the more important meas- ‘ures. ——President Coolidge is very anx- ious to have the Kellogg peace pact ratified though the consensus of opin- jon is that it doesn’t amount to much. —Maybe if chairman Raskob hol- lers up the chimney Santa will slip a millon and a half’s worth of oats in the empty feed box of the Democratic donkey. ——Opposition to the confirmation of Roy D. West, of Chicago, as Sec- retary of the Interior, has developed in the Senate and Mr. Insul may meet with another disappointment. ——It has been decided that the captain of the Vestris was respon- .sible for the disaster and as he went down with the ship the penalty will be imposed in another world. —The Christmas trees on the street curbs are effervescent with Christ- mas cheer, but we are wondering whether they express the real spirit of Christmas there quite as much as they would were they placed in homes that can have no Christmas trees this year. —The amount of money you spend for Christmas doesn’t count half as much by way of making people hap- py as the good-will you express for your fellows. A smile and a cheery word are something that money can’t buy and that’s why they count for so much. —It has been planned that Presi- -dent-elect Hooyer is to be sheltered ‘by a glass cage while watching his coming inaugural parade pass in re- view. Ordinarily, living in a glass house is a very difficult and hazard- ous situation, but it will be perfectly safe for Mr. Hoover because there won’t be many Irish in Washington to throw stones on March fourth. —It is interesting to note that the Anti-Saloon League and the W. C. T. U. are fighting the suggestion that ‘enforcement ‘of the Volstead laws be transferred from the Treasury De- partment to the Department of Jus- tice. This is quite complimentary to “Uncle” Andy Mellon. You know it has been generally supposed that the Secretary of the Treasury isn’t a glutton for any work that would en- force the prohibitory laws too force- fully. —The Democratic corpse of No- vember is showing signs of coming to life quicker than usual. In fact it’s quite a lively cadaver already. When we wrote our own obituary a few days after the election, you will re-: call, that we mentioned “a quicken- ing spirit.” Well, its working already and we hasten to serve notice that, the Lord willing, we’ll be right on the job, conjuring up the shades of Jef- ferson, Jackson, Cleveland and Wil- son, in 1932. And if we can find a brown derby we think we shall wear it, too, —1It is natural that mothers should have great ambitions for their daugh- ters. Their prayers are always to the end that their girls will marry better than they did themselves. This is not meant as a confession of failure in matrimony on the part of the mothers. It is simply an expression of the eternal human hope of get- ting on and up. Parents ever strive to shield their offspring from the hardships and disappointments they endured themselves. Their boy and girl must be given something better than they enjoyed. And so it goes, one generation after another, and that is the process by which society is builded up. —No matter what the merits of the case, it will be a long time before the Game Commission of Pennsylvania hears the last of the arguments over the wisdom of legalizing the killing of doe deer. Of course we don’t be- lieve the contention of many that the deer population has been set back ten years by the wholesale slaughter that has been made. We have been interested, however, in two reports; one of which seems to completely re- fute the contention of the Commis- sion that the deer have been dying of starvation. It is to the effect that every deer killed in this section has been “rolling fat.” We have seen many and all of them were in such condition as to indicate that they had not suffered for food. The other re- port bears on quite another angle of the situation. It gives color to the Commission’s belief that there are not enough bucks in the mountains to maintain a proper sex balance. Whether they know enough about such matters to give credence to their examinations we are not prepared to say, but many hunters have told us that few of the does they helped “cut up” showed any signs of ever having been bred. i STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 73. As the time for the assembling of the Legislature approaches the Re- ‘publican managers are beginning to lay lines for the next gubernatorial paign. No names have been men- tioned for the nomination thus far but it is an open secret that Joe "Grundy has been grooming State Treasurer Samuel S. Lewis for the nomination. The Mellons are not favorable to this disposition of the favor but Grundy reasons that they may be coerced as they were to the support of Fisher three years ago when the Bucks county boss demand- ed his nomination. The activity, not to say garrulity, of Mr. Lewis on the question of revenues, during the past year, is regarded, among the party leaders as a symptom of Grundy’s purpose. It is equally certain that former Lieutenant Governor Edward E. Bei- dleman, of Harrisburg, is a candidate and Mr. Grundy relies upon this fact to force the Mellons to support Lew- is. Beidleman’s friends still believe that he was counted out of the nom- ination three years ago and are re- sentful. Their impulse at the time was to express the resentment by op- posing the ticket but Beidleman in- fluenced them against such a course and has held the party in Dauphin county to party loyalty during the subsequent campaigns. The Fisher ad- ministration retained a good many of Beidleman’s friends in office as a sort of “olive branch,” but it is declared by those in his confidence that he has not asked a favor from Fisher. In the campaign three years ago Vare and Beidleman “pooled issues” and it is believed that in a contest between Beidleman and Lewis next Spring Mr. Vare will support his former political partner. Lewis was a district manager of the Pepper forces in the previous contest and said some very uncomplimentary things about Vare and his qualifica- tions for Senatorial service. More- over Mr. Vare is not entirely satisfied that Governor Fisher and the Mellons did all they could for him while he was trying to “break in” at the be- ginning of the Seventieth Congress. If Vare and Beidleman form an alli- ance for the coming primary cam- paign there will be plenty of excite- ment and some uncertainty as to the result. ——During the recent campaign J. Laird Holmes spent $809.43 to be elected to a third term in the Legis- lature, according to his expense ac- count filed in the prothonotary’s of- fice. The Republican county com- mittee had contributions totaling $1,- 780 and expenses $1746.57. Financing the Highway Department. - State Treasurer Lewis persists in his opinion that the revenues of the State Highway Department will be ample to finance the operations of the department for the ensuing biennium without increasing the gas tax or the automobile license fees. The Secre- tary of the Department urged the adoption of the constitutional amend- ment providing for a loan of fifty millions on the ground that it would be necessary in order to avert addi- tional taxation. Since the defeat of the loan Governor Fisher and officials of the Highway Department, in dis- cussing the matter, have been specu- lating, more or less, on what subject an additional levy might be laid. The inference is that the revenues must be increased. Treasurer Lewis is not always sin- cere in his declarations or accurate in his estimates. But he has been so long intimately associated with the fiscal affairs of the State that he ought to know what he is talking about in this case. In a speech de- livered in Hanover, the other even- ing, he said that “the Highway De- partment will have in each of the next two years, just as much, in fact more, money available for highway construction, maintenance and admin- istrative purposes from present re- sources of revenue than was expend- ed by that department in any one of the years 1926, 1927 and 1928.” If that be true it would be cruel and un- just to levy additional taxes for the use of the department. Measuring the resources by the percentage of increase during the past three years on gasoline tax, motor license fees and federal aid the High- way Department will have at its dis- posal during the next biennium $52, 760,000, which is more than was ex- pended forall purposes during the present period by the department, in- cluding a three million dollar accom- modation loan to the executive depart- ment for building operations. Obvious- ly,if what Mr. Lewis says is true, there is no necessity for increasing the tax on gas or the fee for motor licenses. The automobile owners and gas users of Pennsylvania have been victimized enough. Tt is high time for them to protest against palpable in- justice. : BELLEFONTE, PA.. : 1 Republicans Preparing for Next Year. DECEMBER 14, NO. 49. Coolidge’s Concern for Monopoly. In his last annual message to Con- gress President Coolidge distinctly expresses his solicitude for the con- tinued prosperity of monopoly. Speaking of the Boulder dam project he says, “I feel warranted in recom- mending a measure which will pro- tect the rights of the States, dis- charge the necessary government functions and leave the electrical field to private enterprise.” This is precisely what the water power trust wants in the premises and has spent hundreds of millions in propaganda to achieve. It will bestow on the monop- oly an unrestricted franchise to loot the public indefinitely. Administered in the interest of the people the pro- ject would be an inestimable public benefaction. With respect to the Muscle Shoals problem he is equally frank in favor- ing the power monopoly. The gov- ernment spent more than a hundred million dollars in creating that prop- erty for war purposes. With the end of the war the necessity for it ceased. But it could be easily and cheaply converted into a plant for manufac- turing nitrates and producing electric- cal energy. But the fertilizer trust and the electric trust objected to such use of the property. It interfered with their “strangle hold” of the con- sumers of these products and Mr. Coolidge obligingly recommends Con- gress to lease it at a nominal rental to one or both of these trusts. It will be hard on the consumers but easy for monopoly. The President gives two reasons for his attitude on this proposition, alike insincere and absurd. “I wish to avoid building another dam at pub- lic expense,” he says; “nor do I think,” he adds, “that this property should be made a vehicle for putting the United States government indis- criminately into the private and re- tail field of power distribution and nitrate sales.” What he really means is that he wishes to avoid competi-- tion with the trusts, which would de- prive them of license to rob consum- ers of electric power and fertilizers to the end of time. The trusts have paid nearly a billion dollars to pre- vent such competition and .Mr, Coel=- idge doesn’t want to see their money wasted. ——Bernard Shaw imagines that an overdeveloped sense of humor pre- vented his attainment of greatness. A good many well informed people ascribe his failure in that direction to other causes. The Important Movement. gress has been inquiring into the activities of the Power trust, has ask- ed the United States District court for the Southern District of New York to order the Electric Bond and Share company of that city to “open its operating expenses ledger to the Commission’s examiners and to re- quire its officials to answer questions concerning expenditures for propa- ganda against government ownership and its financial arrangements with subsidiary and affiliated companies.” If the court complies with this rea- sonable request the subsequent opera- tions of the Commission will be inter- esting if not startling. The petition to the court recites that profits of the Electric Bond and Share company depend, in part, upon whether it uses its fees or commis- sions for services above its expenses including disbursements “to influence or control public opinion on account of municipal or public ownership of the means by which power is develop- ed and electrical energy is generated and distributed, or since 1923, to in- fluence or control elections.” It has already been proved that vast sums of money have been spent within re- cent years for both purposes and the intent of the petition to the United States District court is to reveal the source of the funds thus employed. When Samuel Insul, of Chicago, con- tributed out of the treasury of serv- ice corporations under his control a vast slush fund to buy a seat in the United States Senate for one of his servile agents suspicion was aroused and an investigation demanded by Senator Walsh, of Montana. The Power trust and other service cor- porations fought bitterly against a Congressional inquiry under the di- rection of Mr. Walsh but finally con- sented to one by the Federal Trade Commission. The result has been an exposure of expensive propaganda which has invaded the schools, touch- ed the pulpit and debauched the pol- itics of the country. The appeal to the court may expose the source and stop the evil. ——1If Mr. Hoover fulfills his prom- ise to the farmers there will be an early extra session of Congress. It is practically certain there will be no farm. relief legislation this session. ——— End of the Pinchot Code in Sight. If present expectations are fulfilled the coming session of the General Assembly will expunge from the rec- ords all that still remains of the work of the Pinchot administration. In- formation comes from Harrisburg that Governor Fisher has prepared, and intends to press to passage, a measure or series of bills which will completely displace the “Pinchot Code.” That measure was Gifford’s pet achievement, the monument of his statecraft. It may not have been en- tirely altruistic. In fact current gos- sip at the time ascribed it to the sel- fish if not sinister purpose of creat- ing a potential personal political machine. But by the skillful use of patronage it was “pulled off.” The Vare machine was not in sym- pathy either with the measure or its purpose. But Bill Vare occupied a seat in the Senate at the time, was deeply concerned about jobs for his Philadelphia henchmen and Mr. Pin- chot soon “had him eating out of his hand.” After a somewhat prolonged consideration the measure was enact- ed into law and promptly approved. In its subsequent operations it may have disappointed the Governor but was nevertheless a highly cherished achievement. Now Governor Fisher, for some unexplained reason, pro- poses to have it repealed or so emas- culated that as Mark Twain said of the Innocents Abroad address to the Czar of Russia, “its mother wouldn’t know it.” The announcement of the Gover- nor’s purpose to wipe out this last measure of the Pinchot administra- tion has aroused a good deal of men- tal speculation among those politi- cians who are not exactly within the “inner circle.” Some of them express the belief that the complete elimina- tion ‘of the code is contemplated, while others imagine that amendments will be made that will strengthen it for use and in the service of the Mel- lon machine. Of its adaptability to such purpose there is no doubt, and if Pinchot had promptly applied it to hat use he might still be a figure in e politics of Pennsylvania. But he dallied with Vare in the hope of get- ting-a seat in the National convention of 1894, and lost out. ——Theodore Arter Jr., vice presi- dent and general manager of the Al- toona Tribune, has acquired the Jer- sey Shore Herald and will have super- vising charge of that paper in the fu- ture, although he will continue in his position on the Tribune. James H. Brantlinger, who has been sports editor of the Tribune, has been made managing editor of the Herald. i The Federal Trade Commission, | which under the authority of Con- Fisher Hoists the Danger Signal. Governor Fisher has already hoist- ed the danger signal against the treasury raiders in the coming ses- sion of the General Assembly. He has issued an appeal to the heads of the various departments “to keep their budget recommendations for the 1929-1931 biennium within economi- cal and conservative limits.” The sur- plus grabbers are layng plans to get that $25,000,000 which State Treasur- er Lewis confidently predicts at the close of the present fiscal year, and the Governor’s admonition is simply official notice that he proposes to con- trol the distribution himself. The surplus will be absorbed, all right, completely wiped out. But he wants it used for constructive purposes. The Governor is rather proud of the achievements of his administra- tion along the line of public build- ings. Progress on the north office building has been rapid and substan- tial and plans have been made and tentatively accepted for the educa- tional building to be located on the corner of Walnut street and Common- wealth avenue, Harrisburg. This will be a more imposing and expensive structure than either of the office buildings and if it can be started and considerably advanced before the end of his administration Governor Fisher will have some reason to feel elated. His predecessor in office accomplished less, and comparatively speaking, at greater expense to the taxpayers of the State. The Governor is to be commended, moreover, for his desire to employ the surplus in constructive operations. It might have occurred to some of us old fogies that reducing the taxes and using excess funds in hand to pay necessary expenses of government would be a wise way of disposing of the surplus. But the Governor un- derstands that politics is not run that way. The people like to pay taxes if the revenues obtained are used to create prosperity, even of a fictitious variety. Building enterprises give employment to men and make tem- porary prosperity, and though they may cost more than the people can afford to pay the reckoning can p.stponed for a future Tian ~The “paper prosperity,” which followed the election of Hoover was short Lived. 1928. TEETER SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Making a short cut through a narrow street cost Dr. Robert E. Strausser, a Reading physician, responding to a hurry call, $200. He was knocked down by a group of negroes and robbed. Moses Braxton, a chauffeur and Clarence Bur- gess, a laborer, are under arrest, and three other men are being hunted. —Publisher Ralph E. Buch has sold the Lititz Record, one of the oldest and best weekly papers in Lancaster county, to Edward D. Fulweiler, of Columbia, and James Johnson, of Philadelphia. Ful- weiler was connected with a Philadelphia paper for six years and Johnson was em- ployed by the Franklin Printing com- pany, in Philadelphia. The 1928 Deer Season Will Close Tomorrew. With the setting of the sun tomor- | row evening the 1928 deer season will come to a close and the slaughter of the female of the species will be at’ an end for this year. That it has been a royal harvest for the hunters goes without argument. Most any kind of a shot was able to bring his | doe to earth and it is very improbable that the total kill in Centre county will ever be known. i Game wardens early this week es-' timated the slaughter up to that time at from 3500 to 4000, but the kill was still going on, though not so destruc-- tively as last week. Many hunting parties went out of the woods last Saturday, having either shot their limit or bagged all the doe they cared for, and a good portion of the hunting this week has been done by day hunt- | ers. Up to Monday forester McKinney | stated that over a thousand deer that he knew of had been killed within’ the limits of his district, but it is quite possible that many were killed that he got no record of. The woods were filled with day hunters as well as campers, and many of these, when they bagged a deer, shouldered the carcass and made for home without stopping to register the kill. And so’ it was all over the county. An un- usually large number of deer were killed up in the Barrens and out on the Alleghenies, compared to former years, which of course, are included in the game warden’s estimate. | Early this week game wardens also estimated the number of illegal kills at fifty deer, which included every- —Dazed by being struck on the head, Andrew Lazarchik, of Latrobe, recovered consciousness to find the automobile he was driving traveling along the side-walk on Depot street. Getting control of the machine, Lazarchik looked around for the cause of the mischief and found, stunned beside him on the seat, a handsomely plumaged screech owl. —Peter Galanos, a baker, of Donora, thought it was perfectly all right for him to kidnap his wife, Helen, from the home of her parents in Steubenville, Ohio, when they refused to let her return to him when she went there for a visit. The Ohio authorities feel differently, and demand he be held for extradition. Peter is a prison- er in Donora until the Ohio authorities claim hm. —John Pavik, 23, working at the pumps in a Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal com- pany slope at Tresckow colliery, slipped and fell into the scalding hot water in the pump and was so badly scalded that the ‘skin and muscles came off his feet as he pulled off his boots. He had no comrada to help him and managed to clamber 300 feet to the surface. At the Hazleton hos- pital doctors say that he will recover. —Miners of District 2, United Mine . Workers of America, and coal operators representing more than 2,000,000 annual tonnage, have signed a wage agreement for the Clearfield district which it is ex- pected will eliminate industrial wars in that mining section. It will make it pos- sible for the coal operator to plan long time contracts which he can carry on without fear of interruption by strikes. —Claiming she was sold into matrimony by her aunt for $200, Mary Orbarbie of near Uniontown, on Tuesday asked annul- ment of her marriage to Anton Tropa. The girl said she married Tropa two months after arriving in this country and went through the marriage rites in ignor- ance of their meaning. She further alleged that the aunt told her she was to be mar- ried and that the husband-elect was to pay $200. thing from baby fawns up to six | —Mrs. J. E. Himmelrich, of Lewisburg, point bucks, but hunters who have been out in the woods claim the above estimate is away too low. Of course the game wardens have a large ter- ritory to cover in the Centre county mountains and they may have missed some of the illegal kills. Game pro- tector Thomas G. Mosier, of Belle- fonte, has been in charge of the work of looking after illegally killed deer and has had the assistance of J. B. Ross, of Lock Haven, and A. B. Logue, of Renovo, as well as all the Iocal wardens and foresters in Centre county. Up to Monday they had col- leured $3600 in fines for illegal deer killed and averred that hunters gen- erally have not tried to evade the law. They told of one hunter who shot a spike buck in mistake for a doe away out in the Alleghenies and drove twenty-five miles to bring it to | Bellefonte and deliver it to Mr. Mos- ier, at the same time paying his fine without a whimper. Of course there are others who, when they make a wrong kill, will sneak away and do their best to avoid detection. As to the illegal kills, there have been enough of them to supply all charitable institutions within several hundred miles, and on Monday three deer each were sent to the U. S. Nav- al hosptal, the Masonic home and the : Home for Blind Children, in Phila- delphia, and the Ohio Valley hospital, at McKees Rocks. During the hunting season county treasurer Lyman L. Smith issued a total of 6142 regular hunting licenses and 7546 special doe licenses, or a to- tal of 13688, at $2.00 per, which means that $27,376 were spent by hunters for the privilege of hunting in Cen- tre county woodlands, a pretty good price to pay for a few day’s sport. No Need to be Dry | From the Pittsburgh Press. | A certain early United States doc- ument once much quoted said some- thing to the effect that all men are born equal in respect of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is well to remember by us common folks who have to look pretty sick and feel worse before the doctor will consent to let us have a prescription for a half a pint at a price of two: gallons. But do not forget that there is a brighter side to the picture. Ex- Congressman W. D. Jamieson, cor- respondent for several hundred news- papers has this news paragraph in his letter dated Nov. 2, 1928: “You have heard a lot about prohibition, prob- ably gotten sick of talking about it by this time, but I want to tell you that Fight here in Washington one of the cabinet officials in the Coolidge cabinet opened 40 cases of champagne at his daughter’s coming out party.” If any of you thirsty souls wants to know what particular cabinet official this was Mr. Jamieson, whose address is Woodward Building, Washington, D. C., will be glad to tell you. There is no reason why we should feel gloomy so long as at one little house party one can open 40 cases of champagne. Remember also that early in the late political campaign Mr. Hoover pledged himself to carry out the Coolidge policies. I assume that meant the prohibition = enforce- pe ment policy also. —If it is news you are looking for take the Watchman. “Subscribe for the Watchman; i byterian church ‘stole 300 pennies belonging to the Sab- celebrated her ninety-eighth birthday recently. She has lived through three wars and expressed herself as a be- liever in world peace. She is opposed to liquor, believes in aviation and says that “fast” girls are few. Highball drink- ing and ciraget-smoking girls were deplor- ‘ed by the aged lady. Women of this day and age are more progressive and aggres- sive than in the days of 1861, she assert- ed. —A private telephone in a store may be used by customers or guests of the store- keeper regardless of any ruling of the telephone company to the contrary, the Public Serviee Commission ruled on Mon- day. The opinion was returned in up- holding the complaint of Edward™ Ott against the Johnstown Telephone com- pany, in appealing from a rule of the company that any subscriber who permits his telephone to be used by a non-sub- scriber shall have his phone removed. —How long should a man serve in jail for eating one slice of turkey? That's the question a Berks county jury will have to decide. The man is William Miller, a cook. The slice of turkey belonged to Har- ry Folk, for whom Miller worked in a restaurant in Reading. Miller, according to Folk, stole the turkey and ate it while serving customers Sunday night. He had Miller arrested. Miller spent Monday night in jail and then was released on $300 bail on a larceny charge, pending a hearing. —Odd uses for abandoned grist mills are constantly being brought to attention in various paris of Pennylvania. A stone mill erected eighty-nine years ago along the then prosperous Pennsylvania canal, in Montour county, is now manufacturing, not the fine flour of former years, but heavy grease cups for machinery. Since the grist mill ceased operations as such more than forty years ago, it has had a varied career with little success until it was converted into a plant to make grease cups. —Jacob Kramer, of Collegeville, £I1 years old, pleaded guilty to breaking into two churches on October 1. He admitted that he had broken into the First Pres- in Media and that he bath school. He also admitted that he had broken into Mt. Zion M. E. church two hours after he had broken into the Media church and that he was trapped by Dib- ler and Cooper, two policemen who arrest- ed him. Judge Fronefield then sentenced Kramer to the HEastern Penitentiary for a term of two and a half to Tive years. —Two carloads of road building ma- chinery have been unloaded at Mill Hall, and have been removed to the site of the new steel and concrete bridge which has just been finished. The bridge spans the Bald Bagle creek, replacing an old cov- ered bridge which has been in use for the past 110 years, although only guar- anteed seven years when constructed. The road machinery will be used in complet- ing the east and west approaches to the bridge and for the finishing of the new road to the top of Brown's hill, about a quarter of a mile, which will eliminate several curves and also the danger of high water. —TFour Pennsylvania youths were ar- rested in Detroit, Mich., on Tuesday, when detectives found two cases of eggs. a doctor's medicine kit, 10 boxes of chewing gum, four boxes of cigars, two pistols and a blackjack in their automobile, The youths gave their names as; Lawrence O'Donnell, 21, Scranton; Thomas Fowler, 22, Pittsburgh; Thomas Cadonie, 19, Pitts- burgh, and William Winters, 22, also of Pittsburgh. The men were arrested when Winters attempted to sell the eggs to lo- cal restauranteurs. The young men are being held: on “robbery . while armed” charges and Pittsburgh police have been notified. According to Detroit police the youths admitted having stolen the auto- mobile in Pittsburgh Monday.